Before leaving for Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra told China Daily in Beijing on Thursday that although it will be her first time to participate in the Asian Winter Games, she's no stranger to the host city.
"It is going to be my third time visiting Harbin," she said ahead of the official opening on Friday of the 9th Asian Winter Games, which will run through Feb 14.
The trip to China's "Ice City" is part of Paetongtarn's packed schedule during her first official visit to China as prime minister. The visit is scheduled to conclude on Saturday.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the two countries' establishment of diplomatic relations. Annual bilateral trade rose 6.1 percent year-on-year in 2024 to reach $133.98 billion, according to figures from China's General Administration of Customs.
Collaboration on infrastructure and emerging sectors has been high on Paetongtarn's agenda during her trip to China. On Tuesday, before the visit, Thailand's Cabinet approved the second phase of the high-speed rail project that will connect Thailand and China through Laos.
"I think we can get a lot of benefits out of this in the near future, from Thailand to China and to Laos as well," she said.
Citing the future trains' potential push for the commodities trade, Paetongtarn said the project "not only can create more income for the people, but, of course, the relationship between both countries (China and Thailand) is going to be better as well".
Regarding bilateral cooperation in cracking down on online gambling and telecommunications scams, Paetongtarn said she takes the safety of Chinese citizens in Thailand seriously and has personally looked into the aspects of security.
In the interview, she said Thailand has already taken very strong action on this issue, "so I think this is a very good start to prevent all the scams that really, really hurt people".
Noting that Thai people have also been greatly affected by the scams, she said her country has had very good cooperation with China, and "we hope that we can do more together".
"We have a group of people from both countries talking about all the problems that we both have," she added. "I think that is a very good way of finding solutions together."
zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn
